The problem of toxic and hazardous material disposal is often exacerbated when the toxic material is distributed throughout a much larger mass of non-toxic material, such as the case when soil contains trace quantities of PCB's. Two approaches currently exist for the disposal of such toxic/non-toxic mixtures. The toxic molecule can be decomposed by subjecting it to high temperatures via an incineration process or the toxic material can be placed in perpetual storage in some isolated location. Often the non-toxic component of the mixture exceeds the mass of the toxic component by a ratio larger than a million. Since the materials cannot be separated, the entire mixture must be subjected to the incineration or storage process, leading to extremely high disposal cost per unit mass of toxic material.
Ionizing radiation can also be used to decompose toxic molecules, but this technique appears to have the same drawback as incineration, since the entire toxic/non-toxic mixture must be processed. When a mixture of materials is irradiated, the radiative energy is absorbed by the components of the mixture in the proportion of the mass of each component. Thus, if soil containing one part per million of PCB is irradiated, the PCB would absorb only one millionth of the total incident energy.
Examples of prior art patents directed to decomposition and decontamination of materials are the following:
U.S. Pat. No. 4,345,983 Wan PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 3,147,213 Byron et al PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 3,553,089 Mytelka et al PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 4,294,674 Aoki et al PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 4,406,762 Ray et al PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 4,372,832 Bush PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 4,632,742 Tundo